Numerous operations in open water require the transferring of equipment or the maintaining of a precise orientation between two or more seafaring vessels, between a stationary floating platform and one or more seafaring vessels, or any combination thereof. One common scenario is that of a floating platform or ship transferring equipment from another or several ships in very close proximity. In order to safely transfer equipment therebetween, it is desirable to have the vessels in a stabilized configuration with respect to one another. However, various sea states can cause one vessel to move relative to the other, making the transfer of equipment at best difficult, and at worst dangerous to the crew performing the equipment transfer.
While several apparatus, built into watercraft for the purposes of stabilization, are known in the art, it is appreciated that the majority of the time that the watercraft spends at sea will be without the need for stabilization. More specifically, most of the time a watercraft spends at sea is not transferring equipment from one vessel to another. As such, it is not economical to equip every vessel with advanced stabilization technology when it would only need stabilization while the vessel is maneuvering near another ship.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for stabilizing watercraft on an “as needed” basis, without the requirement of equipping the watercraft with a dedicated stabilization system. Other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the disclosure.